"On Wednesdays, we wear PINK." Film Review: Mean Girls
Mean Girls is hilarious and should be taken with a grain of salt. This 2004 film explores all of the high school stereotypes while telling the story of 16 year old transfer student, Cady Heron. Although there may be some truth to the stereotypes presented in the film, there are definitely some obvious embellishments.
The stereotypes are presented in the beginning of the film in the cafeteria scene. As the camera goes around the dining hall, the audience is able to see people of all different groups. Some of the different crowds that are mentioned include “preps,” “jocks,” “sexually active band geeks,” “unfriendly black hotties” and “Asian nerds” (Mean Girls, 2004). The “plastics,” however, are the most exclusive, and popular, group of them all. As Cady is invited to sit at this prestigious table in the cafeteria, her journey through a public high school as a teenage girl begins.
Cady’s original intention of hanging out with the plastics is to collect and provide the inside scoop to her friends, Janice and Damien. As she begins to spend more time with them (the plastics), she finds herself becoming more and more like them. This is a common theme of growing up as a girl in general. Many girls are so desperate to fit in with the “popular” crowd that they often find themselves changing to make everyone else happy. As the movie progresses, we see how Cady goes from a blue jean wearing, not made-up, “A” student to a pink skirt wearing, always concerned about how much lip gloss is on her face, failing math student just to get the attention of others. As she conforms from the innocent Cady, she loses her personality, her kindness and respect.
Another parallel theme I found in this film was the theme of talking about other people behind their back. I just want to clarify that I know there are LOTS of girls out there who truly avoid talking about other people, but for the purpose of this essay, I am going to go along with what I had personally experienced in high school. In high school, I witnessed many girls talking negatively about others. In Mean Girls, the audience sees how prevalent talking badly is among girls. Of course this is embellished. But, I personally have been a victim of a three way conference call “attack.” These things really DO happen. At first, Cady struggles with confusion as to what is going on but after she becomes frustrated with Regina George, Cady, too, starts telling secrets and spreading rumors.
As Cady witnesses more and more of the betrayal displayed by both guys and girls alike at her school, she compares her high school to the watering holes of Africa, alluding that high school students are animalistic to a certain extent.
As far as comparing this movie to the text goes, I found a similarity of what we have been studying in class with virginity. Even though this is done in a humoristic manner, Coach Carter tells his health class “do not have sex because you will get pregnant and die” and “if you touch each other, you will get Chlamydia and die” (Mean Girls, 2004). While reading The Purity Myth, I was able to learn how many young adolescents are only told not to have sex instead of being taught how to practice safe sex. Coach Carter in the film is doing the same. He was brainwashing the students to think sex was bad instead of discussing safe options.
If anyone wants to learn about the struggles and stereotypes of high school while getting a good laugh, watching Mean Girls is the way to go. Like I said before, some of it may be embellishments, but they are funny embellishments to say the least. It is also an interesting way to find parallels from our women studies class. I would highly recommend this film to any male, female, teen or adult!
The stereotypes are presented in the beginning of the film in the cafeteria scene. As the camera goes around the dining hall, the audience is able to see people of all different groups. Some of the different crowds that are mentioned include “preps,” “jocks,” “sexually active band geeks,” “unfriendly black hotties” and “Asian nerds” (Mean Girls, 2004). The “plastics,” however, are the most exclusive, and popular, group of them all. As Cady is invited to sit at this prestigious table in the cafeteria, her journey through a public high school as a teenage girl begins.
Cady’s original intention of hanging out with the plastics is to collect and provide the inside scoop to her friends, Janice and Damien. As she begins to spend more time with them (the plastics), she finds herself becoming more and more like them. This is a common theme of growing up as a girl in general. Many girls are so desperate to fit in with the “popular” crowd that they often find themselves changing to make everyone else happy. As the movie progresses, we see how Cady goes from a blue jean wearing, not made-up, “A” student to a pink skirt wearing, always concerned about how much lip gloss is on her face, failing math student just to get the attention of others. As she conforms from the innocent Cady, she loses her personality, her kindness and respect.
Another parallel theme I found in this film was the theme of talking about other people behind their back. I just want to clarify that I know there are LOTS of girls out there who truly avoid talking about other people, but for the purpose of this essay, I am going to go along with what I had personally experienced in high school. In high school, I witnessed many girls talking negatively about others. In Mean Girls, the audience sees how prevalent talking badly is among girls. Of course this is embellished. But, I personally have been a victim of a three way conference call “attack.” These things really DO happen. At first, Cady struggles with confusion as to what is going on but after she becomes frustrated with Regina George, Cady, too, starts telling secrets and spreading rumors.
As Cady witnesses more and more of the betrayal displayed by both guys and girls alike at her school, she compares her high school to the watering holes of Africa, alluding that high school students are animalistic to a certain extent.
As far as comparing this movie to the text goes, I found a similarity of what we have been studying in class with virginity. Even though this is done in a humoristic manner, Coach Carter tells his health class “do not have sex because you will get pregnant and die” and “if you touch each other, you will get Chlamydia and die” (Mean Girls, 2004). While reading The Purity Myth, I was able to learn how many young adolescents are only told not to have sex instead of being taught how to practice safe sex. Coach Carter in the film is doing the same. He was brainwashing the students to think sex was bad instead of discussing safe options.
If anyone wants to learn about the struggles and stereotypes of high school while getting a good laugh, watching Mean Girls is the way to go. Like I said before, some of it may be embellishments, but they are funny embellishments to say the least. It is also an interesting way to find parallels from our women studies class. I would highly recommend this film to any male, female, teen or adult!
Comments
During the gymnasium scene when Tina Fey's charachter asks the girls who has had rumors spread about them all the girls raise their hand. This is a huge deal within girls and women, we learn to fight one another not to join forces and fight for a common goal.